Checking or unchecking device.



No. 639,736. f Patented Dec. 26, |899. T. A. KILLMAN & A. E. POTTER. CHECKING 0B UNCHECKING DEVICE.

(Application filed Aug. 5, 1899.)

@'MMW M,

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

THOMAS A. KILLMAN AND ALVIN EDWARD POTTER, OE LIBERTY, TENNESSEE.

CHECKING Of! QNCHECKING DEVICE.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 639,736, dated December 26, 1899.

Application filed August 5, 1899. Serial No. 726,310. (No model.)

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that we, THOMAS A. KILLMAN and ALVIN EDWARD POTTER, citizens of the United States, residing at Liberty, in the county of De Kalb and State of Tennessee, have invented a new and useful Harness Attachment, of which the following is a specification. l,

This invention relates to a device for checking and unchecking horses, and has for its object to provide an attachment operating in connection with a checkrein and harness-saddle of harness whereby the said checkrein may be slackened vor tightened up upon the check-hook without the driver leaving the seat of the vehicle, thereby affording convenient means for permitting a horse to drink orfeed and afterward checking him up without Vdiscornmoding the occupant of the vehicle.

The invention consists in the novel construction and combination of the several parts more fully hereinafter described and claimed.

In the accompanying drawings, Figure 1 is a perspective view of harness applied and including the improved attachment. Fig. 2 is perspective view of parts of harness, showing the improved attachment applied thereto and in checked position. Fig. 3 is aview similar to Fig. 2, showing the improved attachment in unchecked position. Fig. 4is a longitudinal vertical section through a plate supporting a cuff and preferred form of check-hook and included in the improved attachment.

Similar numerals of reference are employed to indicate correspondingparts in the several views.

The numeral 1 designates an `overdrawcheckrein of any preferred form or arrangement, and 2 a harness-saddle or back-band of harness. The harness-saddle is supplied with` the usual terret-rings 3, through which are threaded driving-reins 4. Instead of the overdraw-checkrein an ordinary checkrein may be used with the improved attachment and none of the well-known parts thus far referred to are materially modified or changed.

On'the harness-saddle 2 at a point intermediate of the terret-rings 3 a metallic plate 5 is secured by a screw 6, which enters the screw-socket usually provided in harness-saddles to receive the check-hook. The front extremity of the plate 5 is d ownturned and shields or protects the adjacent front edge portion of the harness-saddle. As will be seen from the accompanying drawings, the said plate 5 is disposed longitudinally and near its front extremity has a guiding-cuff 7 thereon. On the said plate in rear of the cuff 7 a hook 8 is fastened and is provided with a lower convex base 9,'inclined rearwardly and continuing into a reversely-curved reduced end 10. Freely movable through the cuff 7 is a check-strap 11, having a slot 12 formed therein near the rear end. The front end of the said strap 11 is movably connected by a ring or other device 13 to the checkrein 1, and to the rear end of said strap is attached a loop or other device 14, through which movably extends an intermediate operating-strap 15,Y

having that part which moves through the loop 14 rounded and the opposite ends flattened or preserved in ordinary strap form and connected by rings or analogous devices 16 to similar devices 17, adjustable in openings 18 of the driving-reins 4. The strap 15 is long enough to permit the animal to have a free head when the check-strapll is disconnected from the hook 8, but will not inconvenience the rechecking operation in the least.

When it is desired to uncheck a horse and free his head for the purpose of drinking or eating, the reins4 are pulled until the slot 12 in the check-strap is drawn backward over the hook 8, and when such position of parts is reached the reins are elevated andat the same time slackened, which will allow the end of the said check-strap to clear the hook vand slip forwardly through the cuff 7. v*The forward movement of the said check-strap 11 will continue proportionately to the slack of the reins 4, the front central portion of the operating-strap 15 also moving through the cuff, as clearly shown by Fig. 3. When it is desired to rein up or recheck the horse, a pulling tension is again applied to the reins 4, which will draw the check-strap 11 rearwardly through the cuff 7 and the slot 12 upwardly over the hook 8, the curvature and rearward inclination of the said hook facilitating the riding action of the parts of the check-strap thereover. As soon as the slot IOO 2 reaches the free extremity of the said hook the latter Will pass through said slot, and the reins are then slackened to an ordinary driving tension. The operating-strap is adjustable in relation to the reins a to accommodate the application of the improved device to various animals or diiTerent sizes of harness and also to different lengths of checkreins. The parts are also so proportioned that the tension exerted on the reins 4 during ordinary driving will not interfere with the check connection of the strap 11.

The use of the cuff 7 facilitates the connection of the check-strap with the hook 8, and the front downwardly-bent end of the plate 5 serves as a guard to prevent the loop 14 from striking the front edge of the harnesssaddle or back-band, as the case may he, and also provides means for guiding the said loop into the cuff.

Many other advantages Will appear to those skilled in the art, and in making certain applications of the attachment slight modifications inay be necessary,and therefore changes in the proportions, size, and minor details of construction may be resorted to Without departing from the spirit of the invention or sacrificing any ot' the advantages'thereof.

Having thus describedthe inventiomwhat is claimed as new is- In a checking and unchecking attachment for harness, the combination with a checkrein, a harnesssaddle or analogous device, and drivin g-reins, of a plate fixed to the harness-saddle or analogous device and having a cuff at the front portion thereof and a rearwardly-inclined hook in rear of the said cuff, a check-strap movably attached to the checkrein and having a slot in its rear extremity and an operatin g-strap loosely passed through a part of the rear extremity of the check-strap and having its ends adjustably connected to the opposite driving-reins.

In testimony that We claim the foregoing as our own we have hereto aliixed our signatures in the presence of two Witnesses.

T. A. KILLMAN. ALVIN EDWARD POTTER.

Vitnesses:

W. L. WICK2 R. B. Evans. 

